Alaskaconstituent state of the United States of America. It was admitted to the union as the 49th state on Jan. 3, 1959. Alaska lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent and is the largest peninsula in the Western Hemisphere. Its 591,004 square miles (1,530,700 square km) include some 15,000 square miles (38,800 square km) of fjords and inlets, and its three faces to the sea have about 34,000 miles (54,400 km) of indented tidal coastline and 6,600 total miles (10,600 km) of coast fronting the open sea. Alaska borders the Arctic Ocean on the north and northwest, the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea on the west, and the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Alaska on the south. The land boundaries on the east cut across some 1,150 miles (1,850 km) of high mountains to separate the state from the Canadian Yukon Territory and British Columbia province. Rimming the state on the south is one of the Earth’s most active earthquake belts(Because the 180th meridian passes through the state’s Aleutian Islands, Alaska’s westernmost portion is in the Eastern Hemisphere. Thus, technically, Alaska is in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres.) Alaska is bounded by the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north; Canada’s Yukon territory and British Columbia province to the east; the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south; the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea to the west; and the Chukchi Sea to the northwest. The capital is Juneau, which lies in the southeast, in the panhandle region.

Alaska is central to the great circle route connecting North America with Asia by sea and air and is equidistant from most of Asia and Europe. This central location has made Alaska militarily significant since the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians in 1942. Alaska’s eastern border with Canada is about 1,538 miles (2,475 km) long, more than one-third the length of the entire U.S. boundary with Canada (3,987 miles [6,416 km]). Alaska’s western maritime boundary, separating U.S. and Russian waters, was established in the Treaty of Cession of 1867 (which declared the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States). The roughly 1,000-mile (1,600-km) de facto boundary runs through the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Strait to a point between Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island and Russia’s Chukotskiy (Chukchi) Peninsula and to the southwest, between Attu Island, the westernmost island of the Alaskan Aleutian chain, and the Russian Komandor Islands. The boundary leaves a patch of international waters, known as the “Doughnut Hole,” in the Bering Sea. Off the extreme western end of the state’s Seward Peninsula, Little Diomede Island, part of Alaska, lies in the Bering Strait only 2.5 miles (4 km) from Russian-owned Big Diomede Island. Both Russia and the United States have shown a tacit tolerance of unintentional airspace violations, which are common in bad weather.

The name Alaska is derived from the Aleut alaxsxa or alaxsxix̂, both meaning “mainland” or “great land.” Indeed, Alaska has an immense area and a great variety of physical characteristics. Aside from its mainland peninsula, the state includes about 15,000 square miles (38,800 square km) of fjords and inlets and about 34,000 miles (54,400 km) of indented tidal coastline. In addition, most of the continental shelf of the United States lies along Alaska’s coast. In the Alaska Range north of Anchorage

,

is Mount McKinley

(Denali)

,

at

20,320 feet (6,194 metres)

, is the

high—the highest peak in North America.

The capital is Juneau, which lies in the southeast in the panhandle region.

When it became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, Alaska increased the nation’s size by nearly 20 percentNearly one-third of the state lies within the Arctic Circle, and about four-fifths of Alaska is underlain by permafrost (permanently frozen sediment and rock). Tundra—the vast, treeless Arctic plains—makes up about one-half of the state. The southern coast and the panhandle at sea level are fully temperate regions. In these and in the adjoining Canadian areas, however, lies the world’s largest expanse of glacial ice outside Greenland and Antarctica. Rimming the state on the south is one of Earth’s most active earthquake belts, the circum-Pacific seismic belt. Alaska has more than 130 active volcanoes, most of which are on the Aleutian Islands and the adjacent Alaska Peninsula. The Alaska earthquake of 1964 was one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded in the United States.

Upon attaining statehood, Alaska increased the size of the United States by nearly one-fifth. The new area included vast stretches of unexplored land and untapped resources. At the time Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated its purchase from Russia in 1867, however, Alaska was known as Seward’s Folly. Its settlement and exploitation have been hindered by its distance from the rest of the nation country and by geographic and climatic impediments to travel and communications; Alaska continues to be the country’s last frontier. More than About half of the state’s inhabitants live in the Greater Anchorage Anchorage–Kenai Peninsula area.

The question of development versus preservation has been heightened by commercial and ecological uses of land: the Alaska Highway gas-difficulty of finding a balance between conservation and development in an enormous land has been ongoing since the beginning of the 20th century. Alaska’s residents and the state and federal governments have had to make delicate decisions on such major issues as a natural gas pipeline project, Native Alaskans’ land claims, the creation of national parks and wildlife refuges, noncommercial whaling by native peoples, and related matters. The conflicts One of the major conflicts occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s between conservationists and petroleum companies over the proposed Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which now runs from the oil-rich North Slope on the Arctic Ocean to Valdez, in the south, was a continuation of the century-long effort to find a balance between conservation and development in this enormous land.

Physical and human geographyThe land

The immense area of Alaska has a great variety of physical characteristics. Nearly one-third of the state lies within the Arctic Circle and has perennially frozen ground (permafrost) and treeless tundra. The southern coast and the panhandle at sea level are fully temperate regions. In these latter and in the adjoining Canadian areas, however, lies the world’s largest expanse of glacial ice outside Greenland and Antarctica. Off the extreme western end of the Seward Peninsula, Little Diomede Island, part of Alaska, lies in the Bering Strait only 2.5 miles (4 km) from Russian-owned Big Diomede Island; both countries have shown a tacit tolerance of unintentional airspace violations, which are common in bad weather.

ReliefAlaska comprises nine

The debate intensified following a catastrophic oil spill in 1989, when the tanker Exxon Valdez released some 250,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound. Moreover, beginning in the 1980s, the two sides came into conflict over whether to permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In the early 21st century the question of drilling in the 23-million-acre (9.3-million-hectare) National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska on the Arctic coastal plain and on the continental shelves of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas also became controversial issues. Area 589,194 square miles (1,526,005 square km). Pop. (2000) 626,932; (2008 est.) 686,293.

Land

Relief

Alaska comprises eight distinct physiographic and environmental regions. Much of the mainland panhandle region, a narrow strip of land 25 to 50 miles (40 to 80 km) wide lying east and south of the St. Elias Mountains, is composed of the Boundary Ranges. There are several large icefields there, and the peaks include Mount St. Elias (18,

009

008 feet [5,

490

489 metres]), from whose summit the Alaska-Yukon border

swings

shifts due north following the 141st meridian. The western extension of this mountain chain is the Chugach Range, a giant arc at the northernmost edge of the Gulf of Alaska. Many of the range’s remote valleys and high ridges are still unexplored, and the relief and glaciation inhibit exploitation. The coast is characterized by frequent and intense oceanic storm systems that have produced dense rain forests on the coastal mountain flanks.

In the valleys, rivers are subject to devastating annual floods often associated with excessive snowmelt and glacial meltwaters.

The region of the south coastal archipelago and the Gulf of Alaska islands includes the Alexander Archipelago in the panhandle region, with 1,100 islands,

plus

as well as Kodiak Island, just southeast of the Alaska Peninsula, and its satellites south of Cook Inlet. These islands

, extensions of the southern region,

are lower, less rugged, and less glaciated. All receive heavy rain and are affected by waters warmed by both the Kuroshio

Current

and Alaska currents.

The Aleutian region includes the

narrow

Alaska Peninsula, which forms the south shoreline of Bristol Bay, and the 1,100-mile- (1,770-km-) long Aleutian island chain that separates the North Pacific from the Bering Sea. The chain includes 14 large islands, 55 significant but smaller ones, and numerous islets. The largest islands are Unimak, Unalaska, and Umnak. On the occasionally clear summer days, active volcanoes and such glacier-covered peaks as symmetrical Shishaldin Volcano (9,372 feet [2,857 metres]) on Unimak can be seen.

Such magnificent views represent the Aleutians at their scenic best.

Usually, however, the weather is wet and stormy, the winds horizontal and cutting, and the fog all-pervading.

The broad Alaska Range region connects the Aleutian Range across the southern third of mainland Alaska to the Wrangell Mountains, which abut the vast complex of the St. Elias Mountains. The Wrangell Mountains have large active volcanoes and high valley glaciers. The flanks of this subarctic range are largely tundra-covered.

The low-lying interior basin region between the Alaska Range in the north and the Chugach–Wrangell–St. Elias mountains to the south and east enjoys a relatively temperate climate. The

lower valleys contain good farmlands, and it is there that most of the people of Alaska

valleys of the Susitna and Matanuska rivers, Cook Inlet, and the Kenai Peninsula are where the majority of Alaskans live.

The central plains and

tablelands

lowlands of interior Alaska constitute a vast region west and north of the Alaska Range; they reach as far north as the Brooks Range. The

area is rolling and dissected by numerous streams tributary to the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. The plains extend

lowlands extend west from the Canadian border to Norton Sound, the Seward Peninsula, and the Yukon River delta,

and

as well as south to the northern rim of Bristol Bay on the Bering Sea. The region is characterized by river flats and truncated

upland tablelands. With abundant wildlife, it is an important nesting ground for waterfowl, including great numbers of migrating birds.A major mountain chain running

tablelands, as well as extensive areas of wetlands formed from melting permafrost. It includes the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, a 9-million-acre (3.6-million-hectare) refuge that contains the Yukon Flats, a vast wetland basin, and the Tanana River floodplain, part of which supports the growth of boreal forests.

The Brooks Range runs from west to east in the area north of the

central plains and extending from the sea nearly to the Yukon border, the Brooks Range

interior. It gradually slopes northward through a set of low-ridge foothills to a

narrow

linear coastal plain bordering the Arctic Ocean and westward to lower hills north of Kotzebue Sound. There are a few high Arctic glaciers in the eastern Brooks Range, and the area is semiarid. The lower flanks and valleys are tundra-covered, with permafrost features.

The Arctic coastal

lowland

plain north of the Brooks Range,

sometimes called

often referred to as the North Slope,

is the home of great herds of caribou. The environment is

has a truly polar environment, with the sea waters along the coast frozen eight months of the year and the ground permanently frozen except for a thin zone of summer melting. It is treeless

,

and, in summer, grasses and Arctic alpine flowers abound. The

National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is located in the western sector, while the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge occupy the eastern sector.

The islands of the Bering Sea represent a small but unique Arctic maritime environment, typified by St. Lawrence, Nunivak, and St. Matthew islands and the Pribilof group. These tundra-covered islands are surrounded by sea ice in winter and serve as protected refuges for the world’s largest herds of fur-bearing seals and sea otters, as well as sea lions and walrus. A large herd of domesticated reindeer is tended by Eskimos on Nunivak Island.

ClimatesFive

Colville River flows through the centre of this region and lies along the eastern edge of the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, originally set aside for petroleum development. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lies to the east of the Colville. Prudhoe Bay, located between these reserves, is a centre of oil-drilling activities in the region.

Drainage

Because of the permanently frozen ground, the Arctic coastal plain contains countless shallow lakes that provide summer food for migratory birds. The two largest lakes in Alaska are Iliamna Lake andBecharof Lake. The major river system in Alaska is the Yukon, which originates in Canada’s Yukon territory. It receives drainage from the southern slopes of the Brooks Range, from the interior, and from the northern slopes of the Alaska Range. Its major tributary is the Tanana River.

Climate

Alaska is known for its variable climate, which is influenced by ocean currents. The western coasts are bathed by the Alaska Current, which carries relatively warm Pacific waters northward and westward along the southern Aleutian Islands. These warm oceanic waters enter the Bering Sea and then flow eastward along the northern coast of the Aleutians. The mixing of the warm waters with the Bering Sea’s cold waters contributes to an atmospheric low-pressure centre known as the Aleutian low. The Arctic coast of Alaska, on the other hand, is bathed by a cold, westward-flowing ocean current.

Several general climatic zones may be delineated in Alaska, excluding the great mountain ranges.

Southern

The first zone—comprising southern coastal and southeastern Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska islands, and the

Aleutians have

Aleutian Islands—has average temperature ranges in the summer of about 40 to 60 °F (4 to 16 °C) and in the winter of about 20 to 40

to 20

°F (−7 to 4

to −7

°C). Rainfall varies locally from about 60 to 160 inches (1,

525

500 to 4,

065

000 mm). However,

and

the

panhandle and southern islands are covered with Sitka spruce, hemlock, and other evergreens. The

Cordova-Valdez region and parts of the west-central panhandle have the state’s highest precipitation, 220 inches (5,

590

600 mm) or more. At Valdez 200 inches (5,

080

100 mm) of snow is not uncommon.

Precipitation is less in the Aleutians, but even there about 250 rainy days occur annually.The interior basin ranges from

The Aleutian Islands are noted for sudden high winds known as williwaws.

Alaska’s interior, a second climatic zone, has a continental climate influenced in the winter by cold air from northern Canada and Siberia. Average temperatures in the interior range from about 45 to 75 °F (7 to 24 °C) in summer and about 20 to −10 °F (−7 to −23 °C) in winter.

The region is drier than the coast and only slightly colder in winter, with Anchorage receiving about 15 inches (380 mm) of precipitation annually. The pleasant conditions and proximity to the sea have helped to make the area the centre of the state’s population.The

It is not uncommon, however, for temperatures to reach into the 90s F (about 34 °C) in summer or drop into the −60s F (about −54 °C) in winter. Thunderstorms are common in the interior in summer, and severe lightning has caused forest fires. Anchorage has warmer winters and cooler summers than the rest of the interior and an annual precipitation amount of about 15 to 20 inches (380 to 500 mm).

Another climatic zone, the islands and coast of the Bering Sea

have

, has summer temperatures of about 40 to 60 °F (4 to 16 °C) and winter temperatures of about 10 to 20

to −10

°F (−12 to −7

to −23

°C). Tempering influences of the Pacific dissipate north of the Pribilof Islands, and

Arctic sea ice often reaches this area.

The central plains and uplands range from 45 to 75 °F (7 to 24 °C) in the summer and −10 to −30 °F (−23 to −34 °C) in the winter. Average precipitation is 10 to 20 inches (254 mm to 508 mm), though less than 10 inches is common.

The ameliorating effects of the Arctic Ocean keep temperatures of the North Slope at

pack ice covers the area every winter. Storms originating in the North Pacific often strike the coasts of the Bering Sea and sometimes cause coastal flooding. The high winds and blizzards brought by such storms create hazardous conditions for the sea’s fishing vessels.

The ameliorating effects of the Beaufort Sea maintain the temperatures of yet another climatic zone—the Arctic coastal lowland, or North Slope—at about 35 to 55 °F (2 to 13 °C) in the summer and about −5 to −20 °F (−21 to −29 °C) in the

winter—less severe than those of the interior plains

winter, but frequent storms and the prevailing polar easterlies create frequent high winds and blowing snow. About 5 to 10 inches (

127

125 to 250 mm) of precipitation

nonetheless remain on the ground as snow for some eight months of the year. The 24-hour sunlight of summer can produce strong buildups of radiant energy, sending temperatures to 90 °F (32 °C). The deep chill of winter, however, maintains the permafrost character of the High Arctic zone. Ice clogs

, mostly as snow but also as rain (especially in August), creates a waterlogged environment due to low evaporation and permafrost. The Arctic region has 24 hours of sunlight in the summer, but the low sun angle limits thawing of the surface to not more than about 1 foot (0.3 metre), while the absence of sunlight in the winter allows an ice cover of at least 1,000 feet (300 metres). Ice covers the northern coast nine months of the year

, while ice fog frequently extends southward to Fairbanks.

Settlement patterns

A large percentage of Alaskans live in the southern interior basins around Anchorage; most of the remainder live in the interior plains around Fairbanks or in the panhandle region, where Juneau is the major city and the administrative centre of the state. Tiny pockets of people are scattered in small villages, the most sparsely occupied being the Arctic plains, the Bering shores, and the Aleutians. Many frontier conditions persist: a male-to-female ratio of 5 to 1 in 1910 has been reduced to near equality, but in many places bars are as numerous as churches.

The people

English, Russian, Spanish, and French place-names reflect early European exploration, but equally prominent are dozens of names from the pre-Western era. The name Alaska itself is derived from the Aleut Alaxsxa or Alaxsxix̂, both meaning “mainland.”

Long before Bering’s voyages the Tlingit Indians lived .

Since 1979 the climate of Alaska has been gradually warming (see global warming), which has caused a measurable amount of permafrost to melt. Moreover, the Arctic Ocean’s pack ice has decreased in thickness, and in summers it has been receding farther north, increasing the possibility that both the Northwest and Northeast passages, accessed through the Bering Strait, may become open for navigation during the summer. This phenomenon would threaten polar bears’ habitats, the seals on which they feed, and the bowhead whales that spend summers in the Beaufort Sea. Several fish species already have begun migrating northward along Alaska’s Pacific Coast because of the warming temperatures.

Plant and animal life

The panhandle and southern islands are covered with Sitka spruce, hemlock, some Alaskan cedar, and other evergreens. The interior is dominated by black spruce (Picea mariana) and white spruce (P. glauca), which form the climax forest (a stable forest community that has adapted to its natural environmental succession). Birch, willow, and aspen trees are also prevalent in the interior.

The islands of the Bering Sea represent a small but unique Arctic maritime environment, typified by St. Lawrence, Nunivak, and St. Matthew islands and the Pribilof group. These tundra-covered islands are surrounded by sea ice in winter and serve as protected refuges for the world’s largest herds of fur-bearing seals and sea otters, as well as sea lions and walrus. A protected group of musk oxen inhabit Nunivak Island. The interior, particularly Denali National Park and Preserve, has an abundance of wildlife, including brown and grizzly bears, caribou (reindeer), wolves, and moose. The North Slope is home to large herds of caribou in the summer. These caribou migrate from south of the Brooks Range to the Arctic coastal plain for breeding; there, constant winds eliminate insects, and the caribou can see its enemy, the wolf, at a great distance. Large numbers of migratory birds nest in both the interior and on the Arctic coastal plain.

People

Population composition

Thousands of years before Danish explorer Vitus Bering arrived in Alaska in 1741, the Tlingit and Haida people were living in the southern and southeastern coastal area; the Aleuts on the Aleutian Islands and the western Alaska Peninsula; and the Eskimos the Inuit and Yupik (Eskimo) on the Bering shore and the Arctic Ocean coast. The interior natives were the Tinneh Indians, whose language was Athabascan, that of the Plains Indians of the interior continent to the south. The Indian groups are presumably descendants of the earliest immigrants across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia, perhaps more than 15,000 years ago, and they reflect the migratory wave that reached as far as the southern extremity of South America as early as 10,000 years ago. Eskimos and Aleuts appear to be much later immigrants, having arrived, probably in boats made of animal skins, perhaps 8,000 to 3,000 years ago. All groups have been involved in the debates and adjudications over public land grants.

The first wave of immigration from the “South 48”—which occurred in the decade before World War I as an aftermath of the gold rush—was a response to Alaska’s initial concentration on its mineral, fish, and timber resources. The discovery of oil fields and the emergence of Alaska as an international air crossroads added impetus to the influx of the 1940s and ’50s and construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to that of the 1960s and ’70s. By 1980 only about 20 percent of the white population of the state was born in Alaska.

Of the current population about one-seventh are Eskimos, Aleuts, and Indians. The remaining citizenry includes military personnel and their families and a melting pot of mixed American, Russian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, and other nationalities.

The economy

The ; and various Athabaskan-speaking peoples in the interior (see American Subarctic peoples). The Tsimshian people of Metlakatla in the southeast migrated into Alaska from British Columbia during the latter decades of the 19th century. In the early 21st century, Native Alaskans constituted about one-seventh of the state’s population.

The remaining citizenry includes military personnel and their families and a melting pot of ethnicities. The mixture of English, Russian, Spanish, and French place-names found in the state reflect its early exploration by a variety of European countries.

The Russian-American Company brought the first Christian missionaries to Alaska; one of the most famous of these was Innocent Veniaminov, who became Metropolitan Innocent of Moscow and was later canonized. The Russian Orthodox Church converted many Native Alaskans to Christianity and today has its main cathedral in Anchorage. Other noted Orthodox churches are in Unalaska and Sitka. Kodiak is the site of one of the few Russian Orthodox seminaries in the United States. Adherents to virtually all other Christian denominations exist in Alaska as well. Most Alaskans in the interior are Roman Catholic or Episcopalian. The state also has smaller communities of Jews and followers of other faiths. Traditional beliefs, known as shamanism, still exist without being in conflict with other faiths.

Settlement patterns

Slightly less than half of Alaskans live in the Greater Anchorage–Kenai Peninsula area. This region is known for its milder temperatures, proximity to the sea, ice-free ports, and petroleum and natural gas development. It is also the centre of air, road, and rail transportation and the headquarters of Alaska’s major banks, corporations, and federal and state administrative agencies.

About one-seventh of the population lives in the Greater Fairbanks area, including the town of Delta Junction, historically the centre of gold mining and the terminus of the Alaska Railroad, which runs from Seward to Fairbanks. The larger cities of the south coastal archipelago and the Gulf of Alaska islands—Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, and Juneau—and surrounding areas collectively contain about one-fourth of Alaska’s population and are fishing and tourism centres.

About one-fifth of Alaskans live in small communities situated along rivers, highways, or the coast. Many of these are in Arctic and western Alaska, where the major settlements include Barrow (at Point Barrow), Kotzebue, Nome, Bethel, Dillingham, Kodiak, and Unalaska—all of which experienced significant population growth in the last quarter of the 20th century. Barrow is the major hub of the North Slope as well as the northernmost town in the United States, and it has derived significant tax revenues from Prudhoe Bay oil.

Demographic trends

The first major wave of in-migration from the conterminous United States (or the “Lower 48,” as Alaskans call it) to Alaska occurred in the 1880s when gold was discovered and fish canneries were developed. The construction of the Alaska Railroad and the development of copper mining at Kennecott attracted more settlers throughout the 1920s and ’30s. Alaska became a significant military outpost during World War II as a base from which to attack the Japanese, who had invaded parts of the Aleutian Island chain, and to provide military assistance, primarily combat aircraft, to Russia. After World War II, population growth was related to the construction of numerous military bases and the development of petroleum and natural gas in the Kenai Peninsula and at Cook Inlet. Following statehood in 1959 and the development of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in the 1970s, Alaska experienced two decades of population growth, which roughly stabilized in the 1990s.

In the early 21st century the majority of Alaska’s residents had been born out of state, though the Alaskan-born population had increased as well. At the same time the number of immigrants from outside the United States had steadily increased by the end of the 20th century. The overwhelming majority of these immigrants came from Mexico, Korea, Vietnam, China, Russia, and Germany.

Alaska has one of the youngest populations of any state. At the time of the 2000 census, the proportion of Alaskans over age 65 was slightly less than 7 percent (about half the U.S. average). However, this slice of the population was growing in the early 21st century.

Economy

The Alaskan economy is conditioned strongly by the state’s

frontier stage of development, but its formerly inadequate tax base for state and municipal growth ended with the development of the North Slope oil fields. High

continuing status as a frontier. While the high costs of labour and transportation and complicated environmental and land-use constraints still tend to discourage outside investment

. Nonetheless, development of the state’s natural resources has assisted markedly in the transition from a federal military to a commercial self-supporting economic base.

Government

Alaska’s economy has been dominated by government since territorial days. From 1940 to 1960 the federal government invested nearly $2 billion in the development of military bases in Alaska. Nothing else in Alaska’s history has produced such long-term results, bringing thousands of residents into the territory and creating jobs and a vast array of transportation and communications facilities extending to remote corners of the state. Combined with state and local government, the defense installations continue to add much to Alaska’s economy.

AgricultureOnly a small sector of Alaska’s economy is agricultural, but a viable in-state market is still under development.

, major improvements in infrastructure have lowered the costs of economic transformation significantly. The problem of the state’s inadequate tax base was remedied by the discovery in 1968 of the North Slope oil fields, which led to the creation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, thereby creating jobs and increasing revenue for the state. Alaska’s present-day economy is based on oil production, fishing, federal and state (both civilian and military) expenditures, research and development, and tourism.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

More than 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of potentially tillable land

are available for farming, but much clearing has yet to be done. Most acreage is near Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula, though there is some near Fairbanks, and stock ranching is practiced on Kodiak and Unimak islands. As a result, all farm products are sold locally and

exist in Alaska, but only a small portion of the state’s economy is agricultural, and most foods must be imported

, tremendously increasing the cost of living. Closure of the Homestead Act, ending settlement of the native land claims issue, has further curtailed development of new land. In spite of a short growing season,

. The state government promoted agricultural expansion in the 1970s, but the amount of cultivable land brought into production was small, and no major expansions have been made since then. Commercial farming (including the growing of barley and potatoes, as well as the raising of cows and pigs) is concentrated in the Matanuska-Susitna valley, which lies north of Anchorage, near the town of Delta Junction, which is southeast of Fairbanks, and to a lesser degree in the Kenai Peninsula. There is also considerable small-scale farming in the Fairbanks area itself, where vegetables, potatoes, and various grains grow rapidly due to the long hours of summer sunlight

are adapted to the production of oats, barley, potatoes, hay, and cool-climate vegetables. Livestock and greenhouse crops are also successful.Fishing, forestry, and fursAlaska’s most constant source of revenue is derived from fishing. Fish are found mostly in waters off the southern coasts, salmon being of especial importance. The centre of the world’s salmon-packing industry is

.

There is some livestock raising on Kodiak Island. Sheep are raised on Unimak Island, and caribou are raised for local consumption in the Kotzebue region. Alaska also produces feed for the increasing number of horses kept in the state for recreational use and for hunting and guided trips. American bison (buffalo), originally imported, are sometimes harvested in the Delta Junction region. Hunting, particularly of moose and caribou, as well as fishing and whaling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, plays a major role in the subsistence economy of native peoples.

Most of Alaska’s commercial timber resources are in the Tongass and Chugach national forests—respectively, in the panhandle and on the southern coast. Due to logging regulations, which restricted timber leases, the pulp mills in Sitka and Ketchikan closed in the 1990s, and Alaskan timber and forestry-related activities and exports were significantly reduced. Efforts to establish an export forestry industry in the Tanana Valley have been unsuccessful.

Alaska’s commercial fishing economy is one of the country’s most significant, and the port of Kodiak is one of the largest fishing ports in the United States. Most of Alaska’s fish production is exported. Salmon of various species are of special importance; the centres of the world’s salmon-packing industry are at Ketchikan, on Kodiak Island,

and at

in the city of Unalaska, in Bristol Bay

ports in the southern Bering Sea. Fleets

, and in Prince William Sound. Commercial fishing fleets also bring in significant quantities of herring, cod, pollack, and halibut, as well as Dungeness, king, and Tanner crabs. International fishing of Alaska’s waters is regulated by the 200-mile- (320-km-) wide exclusive economic zone and the U.S.-Canadian Pacific Salmon Treaty (1985),

which assigns ownership of fish to the country in which they spawn.

Most of Alaska’s timber resources are in the Tongass and Chugach national forests, in the panhandle and on the southern coast, respectively. Timber is produced mainly for export to Asia, with the pulp of Ketchikan and Sitka exported to Japan.

Pribilof sealskins represent more than half of the state’s annual fur production. Other furs, largely from controlled farms, are processed as well. The production of reindeer hides from a herd on Nunivak Island is managed by the Alaska Native Association.

Power

Alaska’s immense hydropower reserve is virtually untapped. The largest project is at Lake Eklutna, near Anchorage. A hydroelectric development near Juneau delivers power to the panhandle area, and the Bradley Lake dam, on the Kenai Peninsula, went into operation in 1991 to deliver power to the central and southern regions. Most other communities depend on diesel and coal plants to produce much of the required municipal power.

MiningPetroleum

as well as by U.S.-Russian cooperation over control of the Bering Sea fisheries. Oysters and clams are harvested on aquatic farms.

Resources and power

Since 1880 hard-rock ore minerals have been mined in Alaska, more than nine-tenths of which yield gold, copper, zinc, and silver. Prospecting has continued with modern scientific technology and aerial exploration. Among the important mines are the Fort Knox and Pogo gold mines near Fairbanks and the Red Dog zinc mine near Kotzebue. A major molybdenum deposit exists near Ketchikan but has not been developed. The Greens Creek Mine near Juneau is one of the largest sources of silver in the United States and also produces lead, zinc, copper, and gold. Newer initiatives include the Kensington gold mine, located about 45 miles (72 km) north-northwest of Juneau, and the Pebble Project, a mineral exploration plan in the Bristol Bay region, about 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Anchorage. Small-scale mining is prevalent in much of the interior and elsewhere, but it is constrained by environmental concerns. Copper mining as a major industry ended with the closing of the Kennecott Mine in 1938, although there are new prospects elsewhere.

Oil seeps were discovered as early as the 1880s in what is now the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, and petroleum was first extracted and refined between 1917 and 1933

, but

in Katalla near Cordova. However, it was not until the development of the Kenai oil field in 1961

made

that the petroleum and natural gas industry

Alaska’s most important

surpassed the other types of Alaskan mineral production.

Oil seeps were known as early as the 1880s in the North Slope region, which today has become a field of major economic importance to both the state and the nation. Alaska ranks second only to Texas in oil production.

Since 1880 hard-rock ore minerals have been mined in Alaska, about 95 percent of which yield gold, copper, zinc, and silver. Prospecting continues, with modern scientific technology and aerial exploration. The areas of maximum mineral potential lie in the panhandle, the Chugach and Alaska ranges, and the Seward Peninsula at locations unlimited by environmental regulation.

Alaska’s gold production declined drastically after World War II, but the mining of gold especially and of zinc, silver, and lead began to rebound in the 1980s. Copper mining as a major industry ended with the closing of the Kennecott Mine in 1938, although there are new prospects elsewhere. Coal has remained an important industry. Another important activity is the extraction of sand, gravel, and clay to serve the construction industry.

Tourism

Alaska has had an upsurge of tourism. Travelers arrive mainly by air or sea and can now cover large areas by airplane and road. The influx is partly the result of the 500-passenger, 100-car ferries that operate as the Alaska Marine Highway. One ferry system connects Kodiak with mainland Seward and the Alaska Railroad, another links Cordova and Valdez, and a third serves panhandle communities from Ketchikan to Skagway, with service also from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and Seattle, Wash.

In the late 1960s another major oil field was discovered at Prudhoe Bay, near the mouth of the Colville River, on the North Slope. A natural gas pipeline connects the Kenai gas fields to Anchorage, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline delivers oil from Prudhoe Bay to ice-free tanker terminals at Valdez and to refineries near Fairbanks. Petroleum production peaked in the 1990s and has been steadily decreasing since then. (Alaska’s potential oil reserves are still very large; however, attempts to drill for petroleum along the Beaufort Sea coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as well as in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska have been met with continuing environmental opposition.) Similarly, the production of natural gas has declined significantly in Kenai and Cook Inlet. Prudhoe Bay also contains a major deposit of natural gas; plans for its development and export were discussed in the early 21st century.

Alaska has large coal reserves at the Beluga Coal Field in south-central Alaska, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Anchorage, and in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska. The only operating coal mine in Alaska, however, is the Usibelli mine near the town of Healy, located about 115 miles (185 km) south of Fairbanks. The low-sulfur coal produced there is transported to local power plants and is exported to South Korea through the port of Seward.

Alaska’s immense hydropower potential is virtually untapped, but dams have been constructed that supply power to most of the major cities. The region from Homer, at the south of the Kenai Peninsula, up to Fairbanks, a route known as the Railbelt, is tied together so that electrical power is generated from three sources: coal at Healy, natural gas at Anchorage, and hydropower from the dams at Bradley and Eklutna lakes. Outside those areas that are served by coal, natural gas, or hydropower, electricity is generated by diesel fuel. The state of Alaska subsidizes electrical production in smaller communities through the Power Cost Equalization Fund.

Services, labour, and taxation

Services are the dominant economic activity of the state. Alaska has had an upsurge of tourism since the mid-20th century. More than one million tourists annually arrive in Alaska, usually by cruise ship. The most popular tourist destination is Denali National Park and Preserve. Another attraction is Sitka National Historical Park, with a large totem pole collection that commemorates the stand of the Tlingit against early Russian settlers. Katmai National Park and Preserve, on the Alaska Peninsula, includes the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, an area of active volcanoes that in 1912 produced one of the world’s most violent eruptions. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, both designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1979, have magnificent fjords and glaciers and extensive bird and animal life. The Tongass and Chugach national forests—in the southeastern and southern coast portions of the state, respectively—are protected by the U.S. government. Wilderness expeditions complete with guides, outfitter services, and boat charters have become common, as have travel packages focused on kayaking, mountain biking and climbing, skiing, and rafting. Another attraction at certain times of the year is the northern lights (aurora borealis), an atmospheric phenomenon that lights up the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere.

Prior to World War II, most Alaskans worked in the fishing and mining industries. With the construction of military bases during World War II, the federal government became a major employer. The state government grew in significance after 1959 and local governments soon thereafter. In fact, about two-thirds of the labour force worked for the government (federal, state, and local) in the early 21st century.

Federal government expenditures, particularly on military bases and personnel, are significant. The U.S. Air Force moved its training facilities from the Philippines to Alaska in 1991. Since that time, the military presence in Alaska has significantly increased, particularly with the reconstruction in 2001 of the ballistic missile early warning system at Clear Air Force Station (southwest of Fairbanks), the expansion of the military bases at Anchorage and Fairbanks, and the construction of missile sites at Fort Greely (southeast of Fairbanks).

The state receives about three-fourths of its revenue from petroleum development at Prudhoe Bay and much of the rest from tourist income. Public financing is implemented through various property, sales, and business taxes, especially petroleum-based severance and corporate taxes. Petroleum-related taxation is the major source of revenue for the North Slope region. Oil-related property taxes are also significant in Fairbanks and Valdez. Smaller communities rely on property taxes, but in some areas sales taxes and revenue from tourism are important.

The Alaska Permanent Fund, made possible with petroleum revenue, offers an annual dividend to each Alaskan resident (must be a resident for at least 12 months) with the interest that it earns. The fund was established in 1976 through a constitutional amendment; its first dividends were paid out in 1982.

Transportation

High costs of transportation continue to sap Alaska’s economic development, largely because the major transportation links, both internal and external, are by air, which provides the fastest way to cross Alaska’s great distances and formidable terrain.

Two dozen

Numerous national airlines serve Alaska,

with daily service for passengers and cargo from the South 48 and Canada, Europe, Hawaii, Korea, and Japan. Some 800 airfields, seaplane bases, and emergency strips are in use, and few villages are without service at least by bush pilots

and there are international airports at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Ketchikan. There are several other local airports of significance and hundreds of landing strips. In the 1990s Alaska became a central point for long-distance air cargo shipment connecting Asia, the United States, and Europe, and many American and European cargo airlines now fly through Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Most of the state’s

roads

major highways are surfaced, but gravel roads still exist. The

Alaska Highway and its Haines and Skagway cutoffs connect Alaska’s internal road network to the outside and provide relatively easy access for tourists. A 416

and combines with the existing highway system to provide an overland route from the ice-free southern ports to the Arctic Ocean. The

public, however, is restricted to the southern half of this highway and may use it only in the summer.The government-owned Alaska Railroad runs for about 500 miles (800 km), linking Seward, Anchorage, and

highway becomes more remote and rugged as it heads north, and the public is restricted in its use of this highway north of Disaster Creek (211 miles [340 km] from its starting point). The Alaska Highway was built during World War II and has been significantly improved by both Canada and the United States. It connects Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks.

Ocean shipping connects Seattle, Vancouver, and the trans-Canada railhead of Prince Rupert to towns in the panhandle and westward to the towns of Cordova, Valdez, Seward, and Kodiak.

Ocean vessels also run during

During the ice-free midsummer months

to Nome and Barrow and to the oil regions of the Arctic coast. A natural gas pipeline connects the Kenai gas fields and Anchorage, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline delivers North Slope oil to ice-free tanker terminals at Valdez.

In the mid-1950s the Alaska Communication Cable was installed between Seattle and Alaska. Radio telephones connect all interior communities.

Administration and social conditionsGovernmentThe state constitution was adopted in 1956

, oceangoing vessels also call in Nome, Barrow, and Prudhoe Bay. Anchorage is Alaska’s major port for imports, while petroleum is exported from Kenai and Valdez, and fish are exported from southeast port cities, particularly Kodiak and Unalaska. The Alaska Marine Highway (1963) is a ferry system with passenger and vehicle service that runs from Bellingham, Wash., or Prince Rupert, B.C., northward across the Gulf of Alaska, into Prince William Sound, and onto the Aleutian chain, making stops in more than 30 coastal towns and cities along the way. Many tourists take the ferries and disembark at Haines or Skagway, inland communities that provide access to highways where they can drive their vehicles farther into the mainland.

The state-owned and state-operated Alaska Railroad runs for about 500 miles (800 km), linking Seward, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. The White Pass and Yukon Route Railway (1898) operates from May through September and travels from Skagway into the Yukon territory.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

The state constitution was adopted and ratified in 1956 but did not become operative until official statehood was declared in 1959. The governor and lieutenant governor are the only elected executive officers and

are elected for

serve four-year terms. The 40-member House of Representatives and 20-member Senate are elected for terms of two and four years, respectively. The Supreme Court has a chief justice and four associate justices. A three-member court of appeals was established in 1980.

There are four district courts

Each of Alaska’s judicial districts is served by superior courts, district courts, and magistrates. A single federal district court sits alternately in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Nome.

Public financing is implemented through various personal income, property, sales, and business taxes, including petroleum-based severance taxes and mining rents and royalties. As a part of the Act of Admission, Congress granted Alaska certain revenues from the sale of furs and of federal lands.

State and borough governments have difficulty in providing the usual range of services because of the limited extent of the economy and a high unemployment rate. The vast area and the difficult terrain increase these problems.

The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) assists Alaska’s natives

Unlike most other U.S. states, Alaska has boroughs instead of counties. The state is divided into cities, boroughs, and hundreds of unincorporated villages, each of which has unique powers. Native Alaskans are organized into 12 regional native corporations (which are similar to tribal organizations, though they function as conventional for-profit business corporations) and 220 village corporations that were established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, which also collectively awarded them $962 million and 44 million acres (17.8 hectares) of federal land. The profits from mineral resources found on the land are shared among all the corporations. Also, each corporation has the right to decide how much land it wants to use for development. The Metlakatla Native Alaskan community on Annette Island Federal Reserve is the only reservation in Alaska and was not part of ANCSA.

In both federal and state politics, Alaska has been decidedly Republican (except for most Native Alaskans). In the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, Alaska benefited from more than three decades of service from Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, each of whom used their clout to channel billions of dollars in federal projects for the state and in providing the state with more control over its land. (In July 2008, however, Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury for failing to disclose gifts received from an oil company; he was convicted in October and lost his Senate seat to a Democrat in the 2008 general elections. Charges against Stevens were later dropped in April 2009, when it was proved that prosecutors withheld key pieces of evidence in his case.) In the 1990s and 2000s, Stevens and Young fought to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, a position supported by most Alaskans but opposed by many environmentalists. In the early 21st century, no Alaskan politician has had a bigger impact on national politics than Sarah Palin, who was elected governor in 2006 and then chosen as the running mate of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in 2008.

Health and welfare

Modern hospital facilities exist in Fairbanks and Anchorage, and most Alaskan communities have clinics that are affiliated with major medical centres. The federal government provides free medical care for Native Alaskans.

The state provides many services which in most other states are provided by cities and counties. For example, subsidies for numerous welfare programs including Pioneer Homes (homes providing assisted living for senior citizens) are furnished by the state.

The Air National Guard and Army National Guard each have two military installations in the state. Alaska has prisons in Kenai, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, Palmer, and elsewhere and a maximum security facility in Seward.

The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, the state of Alaska, and the native corporations assist Native Alaskans in achieving economic and social self-sufficiency.

Despite a number of helpful programs, many of Alaska’s natives suffer from unemployment, low income, and poverty. The native peoples were educated first by missionary groups, though by the time of statehood the BIA had assumed most of the responsibility for education. Funds are provided for

They provide funds for vocational training and the development of job opportunities and for welfare, social work, and medical and health needs.

The BIA also assists natives in organizing their villages under federal and state laws. Some oil revenues from native lands have been applied in self-help programs. Settlement of the native land claims in 1971 improved the native peoples’ economic plight by placing 44 million acres of federal land into the native entitlement

Despite a number of helpful programs, however, many Native Alaskans suffer from unemployment, low incomes, and poverty. The small size of most native communities limits employment opportunities. However, the native corporations employ large numbers of Native Alaskans in various activities, including running oil rigs on the North Slope.

Education

Education is compulsory through

the eighth grade or until age 16

high school and is administered by

a state board and a commissioner of education

local boards of education. The state provides funding for education and pays the full cost of schools in unincorporated areas and more than half the cost in incorporated cities. Correspondence study is available for high school work through the

State

Alaska Department of Education

. There are several federal schools on military bases.

and Early Development. The University of Alaska, founded as a land-grant institution in 1917, operates campuses at Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau

. There are several community colleges, including those at Sitka, Ketchikan, Kenai, and Valdez. Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, Alaska Bible College in Glennallen, and Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka are private institutions.Health and welfare

The elderly, dependent children, and the blind are aided by the state, and a special fund benefits sick and disabled fishermen. The state also operates a psychiatric hospital, a tuberculosis treatment centre, a youth camp, and a prison.

Medical and health clinics and hospitals available to the general public are provided by municipal and borough governments or private agencies, or are run as church-operated facilities. Health standards have improved markedly since 1950 through visits by U.S. Public Health Service nurses and doctors to the remote villages. The large number of airfields, the radio communications network, and the extensive use of bush pilots operating throughout the state make it possible for most persons, even in the remote villages, to reach medical facilities when there is serious need. There are modern hospitals located in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, and Ketchikan

and has numerous satellite campuses. The University of Alaska Fairbanks is a renowned Arctic research centre and has a rocket-launching facility just outside Fairbanks. Sheldon Jackson College (1878) in Sitka was Alaska’s oldest higher-education institution until it closed in 2008. Alaska Bible College (1966) in Glennallen and Alaska Pacific University (1957) in Anchorage are private institutions. Alaska Pacific University hosts the Institute of the North (1994), a centre for the study of the Alaskan government and economy. The state also runs schools on military bases.

Alaska’s native peoples were educated first by missionary groups, though by the time of statehood the Bureau of Indian Affairs was responsible for meeting their educational needs. The state of Alaska accepted responsibility for native education starting in the 1980s. Ilisagvik College (1995) in Barrow, for example, is a two-year tribal college that serves the Inuit (Inupiat) community and focuses on vocational and technical education.

Cultural life

Alaska’s past, including the arts and crafts of its native peoples, is a major influence in Alaskan culture today.

Juneau is the site of the state’s historical library and state museum. The university has a large museum, as do other communities, including Sitka, Haines, Valdez, and Nome. Eminent Alaskan artists have included both whites and Eskimos. Native

Interest in Alaska’s Russian heritage is also strong.

The arts

Alaska’s native peoples are well known for their ivory and wood carvingsare well known, and the nearly lost art of totem carving has been revivedin part through private and public stimulus.

Wildlife refuges and ranges abound throughout Alaska, with more than 77 million acres managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The federal Bureau of Land Management also holds about 25 million acres for waterpower development.

In 1980, more than 104 million acres were designated for national parks, preserves, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, adding to the 7.5 million already so established. The Alaskan national parks are notably spectacular. Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) National Park and Preserve (1917) has an abundance of wildlife, including brown and grizzly bears, caribou, and moose. Katmai National Park and Preserve (1918), on the Alaska Peninsula, includes the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, an area of active volcanoes that in 1912 produced one of the world’s most violent eruptions. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (1925) has magnificent fjords, as well as glaciers that have retreated extensively in the 20th century. Sitka National Historic Park (1910), with a large totem pole collection, commemorates the stand of the Tlingit against early Russian settlers. The Tongass and Chugach national forests in the southeast and south central regions, respectively, are also federal public land reserves. The U.S. Department of the Interior has continued to study the need for withdrawing further regions from public domain into reserves.

The sporting industry, including guide and outfitter services and boat charters, continues to be a colourful activity. Alaska provides the nation’s , particularly in Sitka National Historical Park. Basketry and beadwork are common crafts among Native Alaskans as well.

Alaska is celebrated in a rich body of literature written both by Alaskans and by visitors on whom the state had a dramatic and lasting effect. Most prominent among the latter group is Jack London, who was drawn to Alaska in the 1890s by the Klondike gold rush in the nearby Yukon territory and set a number of books in the state, including Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1906), and Burning Daylight (1910). Naturalist John Muir also explored the Alaskan wilderness and wrote about it in Travels in Alaska (1915). Decades later, an Alaskan sojourn was the subject of journalist John McPhee’s Coming into the Country (1977). On the Edge of Nowhere (1966), a memoir by James Huntington (as told to Lawrence Elliott), the son of a white trapper father and Athabaskan mother, is another landmark of Alaskan literature. Velma Wallis, another Athabaskan, has written several highly regarded books, most notably Two Old Women (1994).

Cultural institutions

Juneau is the site of the state’s historical library and state museum. The Museum of the North, part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is a major Alaska-oriented research museum and includes a permanent exhibit on the northern lights. The Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center in Sitka is dedicated to the heritage of the Native Alaskans of the southeast.

Alaska provides the country’s only significant Arctic wilderness, and much research is done in the study of glacier, mountain, and tundra biomes, atmospheric and ionospheric conditions, and polar oceanography by federal, state, university, and private agencies. For example, the University of Alaska carries out extensive research on Arctic problems through its Geophysical Institute, Institute of Marine Science, Institute of Arctic Biology, and other groups. Since 1946 the Juneau affiliate of the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation, the University of Idaho, and the University of Alaska, has sponsored a glaciologic and environmental research and field sciences training program on the Juneau Icefield. The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward contains the state’s only public aquarium as well as an ocean wildlife rescue centre. It is also a major research centre for the study of marine life and a tourist attraction.

Sports and recreation

The official state sport is dogsled racing, which ranges from sprints to long-distance treks. The most famous race is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race; since its inception in 1967, it has grown from a 25-mile (40 km) to a 1,100-mile (1,770 km) race. The annual World Eskimo-Indian Olympics are held each July in Fairbanks, where native peoples from Alaska, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest compete in traditional Alaskan competitions. The University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Alaska Anchorage compete in men’s and women’s basketball and skiing as well as in men’s hockey, among other sports. In 1979, in an attempt to put its men’s basketball program on the map, the University of Alaska Anchorage exploited a rule that allowed collegiate teams to play more than the then-allotted limit of 28 regular season games if they were played outside the Lower 48 and began holding the basketball tournament that became known as the Great Alaska Shootout. That tournament now attracts some of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s premier programs to its annual Thanksgiving gathering. Since the 1960s some of the best collegiate baseball players in the United States have made the trek north in summer to showcase their talents in the Alaska Baseball League, which has two teams each in Anchorage and Fairbanks, along with teams in Palmer and Kenai, and features an annual Midnight Sun Game.

Opportunities for active recreation abound in every region of the state. There are several national wildlife refuges in Alaska, with more than 77 million acres (31 million hectares) managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1980 more than 100 million acres (40.5 million hectares) were designated for national parks, preserves, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, adding to the 7.5 million acres (3 million hectares) already established. One of the largest ice-carving festivals in the world is held annually at Fairbanks.

Media and publishing

Alaska’s major newspapers include Anchorage Daily News, Fairbanks Daily News Miner, and Juneau Empire. There are other local and weekly newspapers and an online progressive journal, insurgent49. There are a variety of radio and television stations throughout the state, and cable and satellite television services are widely available. Most communities have Internet service, although in smaller settlements it is often limited.